Class 2 girl falls through hole in school bus floor, run over

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A 6-year-old schoolgirl was run over on Wednesday by the school bus she was travelling in after she slipped through a hole on the floor of the vehicle, at Mudichur road, near Tambaram.

The angry onlookers thrashed the driver and set the bus on fire after evacuating the other students of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School of Selaiyur travelling in the bus.

Shruthi, a class 2 student, daughter of Sethumadhavan–Priya couple hailing from Palakkad, Kerala, was getting ready to get down as the bus, driven by Seeman, 58, took a U-turn near Bharadwaj Nagar. There was a hole in the bus floor, which was covered by a wooden plank. The plank moved during the U-turn and Shruthi fell through the hole. The back wheel of the bus ran over the child.

“I was waiting to fill petrol in the nearby petrol pump when we heard a loud noise. The body of the girl was on the road and the school bus driver didn’t bother to stop. We had to chase the bus for half-a-kilometre to stop it,” said Mr Tavamani, one of the witnesses.

The mob dragged the driver out and thrashed him. He initially tried to say that the girl did not fall from his bus.

The crowd handed him over to the police around 4.30 pm. The public, after evacuating all the students, set the bus on fire.

“It took more than 40 minutes for fire tenders to arrive to douse the flames,” said another witness.
Enquiries revealed that the bus was given fitness certificate three weeks back by Tambaram RTO. Traffic was disrupted for nearly two-and-a-half hours following the incident and subsequent protest.

Senior police officers had to rush to the spot to pacify the agitators, and promised action against those responsible for the mishap. Dr N. Vijayan, correspondent and senior principal of the school, said the school outsources bus service on contract.